Create a new comic series/adventure pack!

reiwulf

If you could choose a new comic series or adventure packs what would you do? what setting would you enjoy? what would be the story? the maps used? etc. If you want to keep it (relatively) more possible then use existing maps or parts of existing maps.
If I could choose, I would really enjoy some kind of Noir oriented story, possibly using parts of vibora bay. maybe a murder? an investigation?all of that goes well with the setting.
Another idea I'd love is a more supernatural setting, vampires, werewolves and lots of undead. Vibora Bay again would be the ideal place, parts of the main map and some interiors. Maybe a vampire vs werewolf vs undead theme?

I'd love to see new comic series and aventure packs in game, even with reused maps, but a nice and immersive story that makes it enjoyable. they could release 1 new CS a year, maybe even divided into chapters that are released every 2-3 months. I don't really think that is too much work, specially if we consider that each chapter is around 15 mins or so.

I think it would really change the face of the game for me, what do you think?

thegrandnagus1

Honestly, I think 1 chapter/issue each month should be a reasonable goal if they are using existing maps/assets. I'm obviously not a pro, but using STO's foundry I could easily create a decent mission in a month, and I'm just 1 guy playing around in his free time. A group of people who are actually on the clock should have no problem putting out 1 issue in a month.

piotrtiberius

The ones so far have focused on Viper, DEMON and the Quiplothic, and Destroyer. Meanwhile, Vibora Bay is near the endgame, so it probably doesn't need a comic series as much as other things do.

Personally, I think a future comic series should focus on PSI or ARGENT. ARGENT lacks a climax, even though they really should have been exposed and driven underground by now. PSI has a climax, but it felt lacking to me (though I apparently missed some of the missions in their arc).
Both pretended to be legitimate businesses, but it didn't/shouldn't take much to strip that away. And so where does that leave them afterwards? That's why I think they deserve another look.

bobsy26

If there's new content, I'd like to see it be a bit more creative than sticking to existing villain groups. Much as I like dealing with PSI and ARGENT, there's no reason not to make new villains and minions up rather than stick to the same groups we've been beating up for the last six years.

How about a treasure hunt? Chasing after a master thief who is trying to steal an ancient artefact but accidentally wakes up some ancient evil thingy in the process? Can start off in the streets of Millennium City, then move around various different zones before the Raiders-of-the-Lost-Whatsit style finale in some ancient Andrithal-esque tomb or something.

nextnametaken

Comic books and adventure packs were failed strategies, that were active projects when the game had thousands of players online at any hour. The game's population absolutely tanked when Whiteout was released. The game could not get new players to pay for Action Packs and Comic Books and they were made free for all players and executive producer and the environment designer were sent off to Star Trek where money keeps rolling in.

reiwulf

but this is not a topic to say if they worked or not, but to propose ideas on what could new ones be about.
what setting do you like, sci fi? horror? silver age superheroes? dark vigilante noir setting? etc.

thegrandnagus1

reiwulf said:

but this is not a topic to say if they worked or not, but to propose ideas on what could new ones be about.
what setting do you like, sci fi? horror? silver age superheroes? dark vigilante noir setting? etc.

YOU mentioned a time frame/production rate in your OP, so if you didn't want people discussing that YOU shouldn't have mentioned it. But as far as a theme goes, I think Noir would be interesting...though I'm not sure it would be as marketable as some of the other more mainstream superhero settings.

wingedkagouti

piotrtiberius said:

ARGENT lacks a climax, even though they really should have been exposed and driven underground by now.

ARGENT was exposed back in 1983, the leaders fled the country, but the lawyers kept them in business. Something similar happened in 2003. Their army of lawyers are the main reason they stay in business, as anyone trying to out them as criminals now will face a massive amount of legal harrassment. Basically, heroes may know that ARGENT is rotten to the core, but they don't have the foolproof legally acceptable evidence to make it stick publically.

You can read a bit more about them in the Lore Document.

jonsills

I've spoken (boasted?) before about one of my old PnP adventures, the Magna Carta Scenario, which if we ever did get a foundry would be the first thing I'd start working on. (Summary: A group of less-stable villains, led by Foxbat, have kidnapped a group of physicists and engineers and forced them to develop a time machine that sends them back to June of 1215 with the goal of preventing King John of England from being forced by the barons to sign the Magna Carta, the first written limitation on the power of kings. They believe that in the resulting timeline, their natural superiority will leave them in charge of the world. Our Heroes follow them back, and ultimately wind up at Runnymede facing off against the villains in a combat of champions, no pun intended. The end result is a minor adjustment to history books, with modern scholars disparaging or flat-out ignoring the legends of angels and demons on the field that day...)

If any of the official writers for CO would like to run with this idea, I'll happily share my research with you. (I did a lot of research. Did you know the Magna Carta was how the rebels in the Colonies rallied support from their fellow colonists? After George III turned away their appeal for succor, they said he'd rejected them because they appealed to their rights under the MC, and that he'd replied that as colonists, they weren't really Englishmen and thus had no MC rights. The reasoning was that if they weren't Englishmen, why should they owe allegiance to the Crown?)

canadascott

Years ago, I had in mind a noirish murder mystery for what would have turned out to be the son of Amazing Grace who was essentially cutting up his own body and selling pieces of himself to market his advanced healing/immortality factor to a number of wealthy clients (including a respected superhero ). Someone wanted the whole golden goose, and everyone else wanted to cover their involvement. I wanted a scenario that felt appropriate to street heroes.

bulgarex

bobsy26 said:

If there's new content, I'd like to see it be a bit more creative than sticking to existing villain groups. Much as I like dealing with PSI and ARGENT, there's no reason not to make new villains and minions up rather than stick to the same groups we've been beating up for the last six years.

Or just adapt some more of the hundreds of unused ones with backgrounds, descriptions, and illustrations already done for the PnP side of the setting.

bulgarex

wingedkagouti said:

ARGENT was exposed back in 1983, the leaders fled the country, but the lawyers kept them in business. Something similar happened in 2003. Their army of lawyers are the main reason they stay in business, as anyone trying to out them as criminals now will face a massive amount of legal harrassment. Basically, heroes may know that ARGENT is rotten to the core, but they don't have the foolproof legally acceptable evidence to make it stick publically.

You can read a bit more about them in the Lore Document.

The legal status of ARGENT is one of the points where what you see in CO differs from the lore for the PnP game, undoubtedly a deliberate choice by the devs. Scott "canadascott/Thundrax" Bennie's suggestion for reconciling them in that Lore Primer is a sound compromise for role-playing purposes, although not canon for either version of the game.

roughbearmattach

The Machanon series of missions is sort of a comic pack. The four missions are quite short, though.
I think that is about the best we're going to get at this stage.

That being said, I'd love another new four or five mission chain, preferably one outside of MC.

sistersilicon

Could we find an excuse to bring Eurostar to MC? Maybe some connection to Gravitar, or a reignition of hostilities with VIPER?

bulgarex

Fiacho hates the United States for its economic and cultural "imperialism" in Europe. It was never difficult to justify Eurostar making a high-profile terrorist attack on American soil. And several major manufacturing and media corporations have their headquarters in Millennium City. For that matter, MC is itself a symbol of America rising from the ashes of Dr. Destroyer's attempt to destroy it.

sigmaseven0

Now that @kaiserin is on the team, maybe @crypticarkayne or whoever makes the decisions could consider consulting @bulgarex or even letting him write some content. He would probably do it pro bono

piotrtiberius

wingedkagouti said:

piotrtiberius said:

ARGENT lacks a climax, even though they really should have been exposed and driven underground by now.

ARGENT was exposed back in 1983, the leaders fled the country, but the lawyers kept them in business. Something similar happened in 2003. Their army of lawyers are the main reason they stay in business, as anyone trying to out them as criminals now will face a massive amount of legal harrassment. Basically, heroes may know that ARGENT is rotten to the core, but they don't have the foolproof legally acceptable evidence to make it stick publically.

You can read a bit more about them in the Lore Document.

I did read the lore document, and it was quite fascinating. However, it doesn't change what I said in the least. By now, that "foolproof legally acceptable evidence" has been found in various Argent-related missions and is in the hands of various contacts with the means and the intent to attack Argent in the courtroom. Argent's fall is inevitable based on what is already in the game.

jonsills

piotrtiberius said:

wingedkagouti said:

piotrtiberius said:

ARGENT lacks a climax, even though they really should have been exposed and driven underground by now.

ARGENT was exposed back in 1983, the leaders fled the country, but the lawyers kept them in business. Something similar happened in 2003. Their army of lawyers are the main reason they stay in business, as anyone trying to out them as criminals now will face a massive amount of legal harrassment. Basically, heroes may know that ARGENT is rotten to the core, but they don't have the foolproof legally acceptable evidence to make it stick publically.

You can read a bit more about them in the Lore Document.

I did read the lore document, and it was quite fascinating. However, it doesn't change what I said in the least. By now, that "foolproof legally acceptable evidence" has been found in various Argent-related missions and is in the hands of various contacts with the means and the intent to attack Argent in the courtroom. Argent's fall is inevitable based on what is already in the game.

Did you have a court-issued warrant to search ARGENT's headquarters? Because when I went in there, it was at some undercover agent's suggestion, so nothing that I found would be admissible evidence in the US.

bulgarex

There are other huge multi-national corporations in the setting with public respectability but secret illegal agendas, i.e. Advanced Concepts Industries (ACI), and Duchess Industries. ARGENT isn't needed to fill that niche. While you could certainly justify not bringing the legal hammer down on ARGENT, as jonsils explained, it might be a good thing to let the setting evolve further in CO.

bulgarex

sigmaseven0 said:

Now that @kaiserin is on the team, maybe @crypticarkayne or whoever makes the decisions could consider consulting @bulgarex or even letting him write some content. He would probably do it pro bono

You flatter me, thank you. I'm afraid I'm not qualified to be a content writer, nor could I invest the time and energy to do it properly right now, pro bono or no. But I'm always happy to offer input to anyone who asks. Not to sound immodest, but Steve Long did ask me to help fact-check some of his Champions books, which I think lends me a measure of credibility.

bulgarex

There is one plot element that's been hanging around Champions Earth since the new setting was incarnated, which I'd like to see brought out as a storyline: the Hzeel. These aliens have been scouting Earth for almost two decades now, wanting it as an advance staging area in their protracted war with the Dorvalans/Perseids (Ironclad's race). Champions PnP books were building to a major Hzeel invasion event, but then Cryptic bought the IP and decided to develop the Qularr and Gadroon instead. In game continuity, the Hzeel have stood back to study these other aliens on Earth.

An Hzeel invasion could take advantage of some of the location maps added to CO since its opening. It would make sense for them to attack the Gateway space station, and Moonbase Serenity. They would likely want to neutralize the Gadroon presence in northern Canada, and the Qularr on Monster Island.

spinnytop

The entire thing would just be one big dumb battle against Viper. It would literally be like 30 minutes that's just you fighting Viper's massive army as it lays siege to some sort of fortified building, and your reward at the end is determined by how much damage the building took vs how many Viper troops you defeated. All the Viper bosses would make appearances, there would be entire battalions of Brick Busters, and of course you would have Until NPCs there as well ( and when they fall you could run up and activate them to get them back on their feet, though it'd be faster to use a rez power on them ). There would also be a lot of lens flair for no reason, and at certain points when Viper unleases some big attacks there would be slow mo also just to make it more big and dumb. Also big explosions. Cars. Robots. Megan Fox. Space gold.

nepht

This idea is full of win. More APs would be welcome.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

biffsmackwell

reiwulf said:

If you could choose a new comic series or adventure packs what would you do? what setting would you enjoy? what would be the story? the maps used? etc. If you want to keep it (relatively) more possible then use existing maps or parts of existing maps.
If I could choose, I would really enjoy some kind of Noir oriented story, possibly using parts of vibora bay. maybe a murder? an investigation?all of that goes well with the setting.
Another idea I'd love is a more supernatural setting, vampires, werewolves and lots of undead. Vibora Bay again would be the ideal place, parts of the main map and some interiors. Maybe a vampire vs werewolf vs undead theme?

I'd love to see new comic series and aventure packs in game, even with reused maps, but a nice and immersive story that makes it enjoyable. they could release 1 new CS a year, maybe even divided into chapters that are released every 2-3 months. I don't really think that is too much work, specially if we consider that each chapter is around 15 mins or so.

I think it would really change the face of the game for me, what do you think?

I'm on the opposite end of this. I don't want vampires, werewolves, and undead. We have enough of that in our currently available content. I'd like to see more classic supervillains, from mundane to cosmic in nature. I wanna see masks, capes and gadgets and not swords, cloaks and magic.

To anyone that wants to bring up the "but, Dr. Strange" rhetoric, I don't wanna hear it.

roughbearmattach

bluegrassbeast said:

I always looked at it as thus.. we have Mystic and Science adventures, so my idea would be to do an Arms adventure.

I never took the idea very far, but the gist would be to have Warlord and his Shadow Army besieging some small city for reasons undefined, forcing the heroes to play Wolverines, liberate the town, and prevent the goal my rallying the townsfolk to their aid...

This would be an excellent idea.

bulgarex

biffsmackwell said:

I'm on the opposite end of this. I don't want vampires, werewolves, and undead. We have enough of that in our currently available content. I'd like to see more classic supervillains, from mundane to cosmic in nature. I wanna see masks, capes and gadgets and not swords, cloaks and magic.

To anyone that wants to bring up the "but, Dr. Strange" rhetoric, I don't wanna hear it.

For my part I'm wholeheartedly with you on that, Mr. Smackwell. Fantasy and gothic and noir are not only already well-represented in CO, but the video RPG market is replete with them. I would like this purportedly-comic-inspired game to look and feel more like the comics. That's the experience that can set it apart from most other MMOs.

Now, to be fair, vampires, werewolves, and the undead do appear from time to time in some superhero comics. The genre has absorbed them like it has absorbed elements from just about every other genre of adventure folklore and fiction. But they're a long way from the core features of supers. I'm not sure how much of CO content was the original devs' desire, and how much was an attempt to cater to the anticipated tastes of players coming from other games.

Now, if someone is dead-set on building on the precedents from Dr. Strange, then by gum, really do Dr. Strange. Give us the Champions equivalent to "Ditko-esque" surreal dimensions and their power-mad rulers. Let's fight Tyrannon's avatars on a thread-world in Thulkos, or Bromion in his clockwork universe, or Skarn the Shaper and his cadre in dimensions warped by his whim.

sigmaseven0

I want an adventure pack where my Nemesis is the central antagonist.

kamokami

I don't want new adventure packs. I want updates to existing non-alert content in terms of rewards, difficulty curves, and accessibility.